This study focuses on the ACTFL-OPI assessment criterion of "accuracy and comprehension difficulty" and analyzes and discusses the factors that affect the listener's comprehension.
Among the six components of "Accuracy," which are vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, fluency, pragmatic competence, and sociolinguistic competence, it was found that the components that affect listeners' comprehension are vocabulary and pronunciation, regardless of the teacher’s teaching history or the teacher’s familiarity with learners' native language. The group unfamiliar with Japanese learners did not perceive grammatical errors as a difficulty factor in understanding in the case of advanced level utterances, compared to the group of Japanese language teachers. Teachers tend to focus on grammar when evaluating the speech of Japanese language learners, but in reality, caution should be exercised.
A closer look at vocabulary and pronunciation, which were cited as factors affecting listeners' comprehension, reveals that with respect to vocabulary, lack of vocabulary was the most common cause of comprehension difficulties. In particular, for the group unfamiliar with Japanese language learners, if they could not understand key words, they might not be able to understand the entire conversation. When teaching conversation, teachers should instruct students to use vocabulary that is important to the topic under discussion so that the listener can understand it. Regarding pronunciation, "accent," "consonant alternation," and "vowel alternation," in that order, were the most difficult items to understand. In light of previous studies, it can be inferred that the difficulty of acquisition and whether or not the inability to properly pronounce difficult items results in such errors that interferes with comprehension are two separate issues.
Finally, the group that was unfamiliar with the learners' native language cited "pragmatic competence" as the cause of their incomprehension of utterances, which could be related to questioning by the examiners. It is applicable not only for examiners but also for teachers that even if a teacher understands what the learners are trying to say, asking them questions, rather than trying to understand what they are intending to say, can elicit speech from the learners and lead to their learning.